THE provision of some public toilets in Tavistock could be about to change, in the light of public spending cuts due to be announced shortly.

West Devon Borough Council currently provides three sets of public conveniences in the town — in the Guildhall car park, Bedford car park and the bus station.

Helen Dobby, the council's head of environmental services, has written to the town council, among other parish councils in West Devon, to see if it would be interested in running the public conveniences in the town.

Mrs Dobby said: 'Your council will be conscious that the new Coalition Government has confirmed that significant changes to the funding of local services will be made this year, and over the lifetime of the parliament. The Chancellor has also confirmed that he expects there to be no increase in the level of council tax next year.

'The borough's budget strategy process always includes a consideration and prioritisation of the following year's needs. As a discretionary service, the public toilet provision must be explored as part of this process.'

The current running costs of the three sets of toilets in Tavistock was given as approximately £66,900.

Tavistock mayor Cllr David Whitcomb, during last week's meeting of the town council's finance committee, asked if the borough would close the toilets if the town council did not take them over.

Cllr Philip Sanders, who is also a borough councillor, said: 'I think it's a strong possibility that one or more may be closed. Toilets are a non-statutory function and it's the non-statutory services that have to face cuts. As a town councillor, I can see some advantages to taking them on, we would at least have more control over them.

'Personally, I think any council that goes down the road of shutting toilets is completely bonkers, specially in a tourist area.

'One view is that we should be more like Europe and use café toilets etc, but we don't have that European culture.'

Cllr Robin Pike felt the idea of taking on the running of the toilets was worth looking at — he suggested a group of councillors and officers should meet with the borough council and report back.

Cllr Anne Johnson said: 'I think it's extremely important to maintain toilet provision, we need to get that clear first of all.

'We do already make a contribution towards providing the toilets, and we are looking at net costs here.

'These toilets are all surrounded by car parks — why don't we take them on as well?'

The committee agreed the matter should be included on the next agenda of the West Devon consultative liaison group meeting — more information should also be gathered from the borough's officers.